Her team has won 28 consecutive games and marched through the Spokane Regional as the No. 1 seed.

Brenda Frese's Maryland Terrapins beat Tennessee by 10 points Monday, catapulting the Big Ten champion into the Final Four for the second year in a row and third time in Frese's 13 years as head coach in College Park. Maryland is ranked fourth in the country and has been good all season.

The reward for all that hard work?

The two-time defending national champions. UConn (36-1) has averaged 90.2 points and the Huskies possess a mind-boggling scoring margin of 41.9 points.

The next-best scoring margin in the country this season? Princeton, at 23.2. Maryland is sixth at 18.6.

Welcome to the Final Four, Terps.

"It's going to take a collective team effort," Frese said on a conference call Wednesday.

The Irish will be playing in their fifth consecutive Final Four this weekend in Tampa, Fla., while South Carolina is playing in its first in program history.

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There's no avoiding the cold numbers as Maryland prepares for a national semifinal matchup with UConn. The Huskies, making their eighth consecutive Final Four appearance, have been steadily improving all season and arrive in Tampa as a heavy favorite.

But Frese and her team will no doubt study video of UConn's only loss this season. Stanford ended UConn's 47-game winning streak with an 88-86 overtime victory on Nov. 17, in the second game of the season.

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"Obviously in that Stanford game, they did a tremendous job collectively as a team," Frese said. "They are a great scoring team, and you've got to be able to try to take some things away. And then I think you have to have your own team … be able to keep pace in terms of being able to score the basketball."

So here's the game plan — contain an offense that features five starters averaging double figures in scoring while putting up points against a defense that has held opponents to just 48.2 points per game, which leads the country.

Frese stressed that will require a complete performance from a team that doesn't rely on one scorer. The Terps' offense is led by guards Laurin Mincy (13.8 points), Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (13.5), and Lexie Brown (13.4). Center Brionna Jones (6 feet 3) is averaging 12.3 points and nine rebounds.

"If anyone's seen us play, I mean, you can obviously tell it's taken a total team effort for us to be able to get to this point," Frese said. "But I'm really proud of our consistency factor, when you talk about back-to-back Final Fours, for us to be coming to Tampa, [there are] so many things that take place behind the scenes to be able to accomplish such a feat."

UConn is coming off a 21-point win over Dayton in the final of the Albany Regional. The Huskies trailed by one point at halftime before breezing in the second half.

That win came after a 51-point trouncing of Texas in the regional semifinals. UConn has the nation's best player in Breanna Stewart, who has never lost an NCAA Tournament game. Stewart (17.6 points, 7.6 rebounds) can score from anywhere on the floor, offering a matchup nightmare for Maryland.

Point guard Moriah Jefferson, an emerging star, sets the pace with speed and ball-handling, but she can also keep defenders honest as an outside scoring threat. And UConn also has the best three-pointshooter in NCAA history — Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis (15.2 points).

The Huskies play a fluid, uptempo offense, which is fine with Frese. Tennessee slowed the pace against Maryland and the low-scoring game (58-48) devolved into a more physical duel.

"I think both Maryland and UConn really like to get out and like to push the tempo," Frese said. "So you've got to be able to score the basketball with Connecticut. You've got to be able to make your own runs and try to get stops on the defensive end."

For his part, UConn coach Geno Auriemma is preparing for a challenge. With four No. 1 seeds in the Final Four, Auriemma said he believes the best four teams in the country are gathering in Tampa.

"We're not going down there thinking that we're so good that it doesn't matter," Auriemma said. "Any team that's down there this weekend can win the national championship. We don't buy into this nonsense that we're the only team that can win this thing any more than I'm sure the rest of the country thinks Kentucky can't lose in the men's Final Four. That's not the case at all. Things happen in the Final Four that you just don't expect."

UConn is 3-0 all-time against Maryland. The Huskies beat the Terps 72-55 in the third game of the 2013-14 season and they beat Maryland in the Bridgeport Regional of the NCAA Tournament in 2013.

The win in Bridgeport was the third en route to a national title. UConn has lost one game since that victory two years ago, but Auriemma is taking nothing for granted this weekend.

"We're not invincible," Auriemma said. "We're not unbeatable. I just think that we've been on an amazing run and it's going to end. Somebody is going to knock us off, maybe this weekend ... who knows?"